When Physical is Not Real Enough

This position paper argues that policies for physical memory management and for memory power mode control should be relocated to the system software of a programmable memory management controller (MMC). Similarly to the mapping of virtual to physical addresses done by an MMU of a processor, this controller offers another level of mapping from physical addresses to real addresses in a multi-bank multi-technology (DRAM, MRAM, FLASH) memory system. Furthermore, the programmable memory controller is responsible for the allocation and migration of memory according to power and performance demands. Our approach dissociates the aspects of memory protection and sharing from the aspect of energy-aware management of real memory. In this way, legacy operating systems do not have to be extended to reduce memory power dissipation, and power-aware memory is no longer limited to CPUs with an MMU

The Logic of Interactive Dualism

The assumption that known physical laws are sufficient for explaining mental phenomena is flawed from the outset. Qualities such as phenomenal redness do not exist within the known physical laws so by definition they are incomplete. Now assuming a new law was added that could explain how some physical property or vibration causes or is associated with phenomenal redness it would not be enough because it still wouldn’t explain how different qualities are bound together into a subjective unity. Assuming more additional laws could now explain the popping into existence of subjective selves this also would still not be enough because a subjective self that cannot be directly observed nor indirectly observed via its effects vanishes into non-existence. This implies that subjective selves must have causal efficacy. But this would require still additional physical laws or perhaps an accommodated interpretation of quantum physics because there is no current understanding of how a mind can change the probability distribution of matter. But even if an expanded quantum physics was understood this would still not be enough because no general law can determine the indexical fact that I am me and you are you. Then the hard problem of consciousness is real, non-trivial and when taken seriously appears to be actually separate problems. 1. How are qualia generated from purely physical activity? This appears to be a strictly deterministic process. 2. The so called binding problem. That is how is that I hear a sound and see a visual scene and feel a bodily sensation, all separate modalities that are unrelated, and yet I experience them all at the same time? 3. Can it be that I am causally efficacious? It certainly seems that the actual feelings of pain and pleasure serve some real purpose. Since conscious entities can never be directly observed and are only known through their effects, if they have no effects they disappear altogether. 4. The so called problem of indexicality. That is why I am me and not you. This seems to be a real fact above and beyond any objective fact. Eliminative materialism ignores the empirical evidence that phenomenal qualities exist and in doing so attains logical consistency. Other forms of emergence that try to explain qualia and give it a meaning while being restricted to physical closure are illogical. I explore these hard problems and arrive at a justification for a panpsychic interactive dualism

Confucian Principles: A Study of Chinese Americans’ Interpersonal Relationships in Selected Children’s Picturebooks

[[abstract]]There has not been enough critical analysis of children’s literature by and about Chinese Americans, especially when compared to other minority groups in the United States. In particular, Chinese American historical books lack extensive analysis. It is important to reflect cultural accuracy in literature and to help children develop clear concepts of self and others by providing precise cultural and physical characteristics of people. While cultural authenticity allows children the opportunity to see a reflection of real experiences within a book instead of seeing stereotypes or misrepresentations, obtaining correct information about a certain time period can help children to see images of immigration accurately represented in literature. Using the Confucian delineation of interpersonal relationships as the major criterion of cultural authenticity, this article examines three currently available children’s picturebooks set in the historical period between 1848 and 1885. In addition to exploring how Chinese Americans’ interpersonal relationships are portrayed in these children’s historical books, this article argues for more proactive inclusion of the diversity in selection of picturebooks.[[notice]]補正完

The Casimir Problem of Spherical Dielectrics: Numerical Evaluation for General Permittivities

The Casimir mutual free energy F for a system of two dielectric concentric nonmagnetic spherical bodies is calculated, at arbitrary temperatures. The present paper is a continuation of an earlier investigation [Phys. Rev. E {\bf 63}, 051101 (2001)], in which F was evaluated in full only for the case of ideal metals (refractive index n=infinity). Here, analogous results are presented for dielectrics, for some chosen values of n. Our basic calculational method stems from quantum statistical mechanics. The Debye expansions for the Riccati-Bessel functions when carried out to a high order are found to be very useful in practice (thereby overflow/underflow problems are easily avoided), and also to give accurate results even for the lowest values of l down to l=1. Another virtue of the Debye expansions is that the limiting case of metals becomes quite amenable to an analytical treatment in spherical geometry. We first discuss the zero-frequency TE mode problem from a mathematical viewpoint and then, as a physical input, invoke the actual dispersion relations. The result of our analysis, based upon the adoption of the Drude dispersion relation at low frequencies, is that the zero-frequency TE mode does not contribute for a real metal. Accordingly, F turns out in this case to be only one half of the conventional value at high temperatures. The applicability of the Drude model in this context has however been questioned recently, and we do not aim at a complete discussion of this issue here. Existing experiments are low-temperature experiments, and are so far not accurate enough to distinguish between the different predictions. We also calculate explicitly the contribution from the zero-frequency mode for a dielectric. For a dielectric, this zero-frequency problem is absent.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX, 7 ps figures; expanded discussion, especially in Sec. 5. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Theology and Engineering Practice: Models of Reality

To a Christian engineer both faith and engineering practice are very important. As we work through what we believe about God and how we practice engineering, we find that they have something important in common. Both systematic theology and engineering practice are approximations in our attempts to understand reality. When theologians attempt to systematize the faith, they are coming up with human models of how they see God acting in human history. When engineers design a new product, they use models of how materials act when they have various forces applied to them. For example, in discussing end times theologians have created models such as pre-millennial, post-millennial and a-millennial. Similarly, as an engineer I accept the model of Newtonian mechanics to describe the behavior of solid materials under stress. However, this is just a model (though a good one) of how things behave. While these models are human abstractions concerning ultimate reality, they need to be precise enough upon which to base fundamental choices in life. If we are to experience the life God wants us to have we need to understand theology well enough to know what God expects of humans. While Newtonian mechanics is not a perfect model it is good enough for us to use as the basis for the design of a new airplane. In both situations, human life is at stake. Good theology can make life more pleasant and help us understand God better; good engineering can make human life more comfortable and help us understand science better. With respect to innovations, both disciplines recognize their need, but also their limitations. Whatever we develop must match the reality that we already know. A good theologian needs to be able to help Christians who face new issues, such as privacy and the use of technology. However, too much innovation in theology can lead to models about God that are not consistent with the Bible nor the experiences of Christians throughout history. Engineers are rewarded for creating new designs; however, whatever they create must still work in the real world. Their designs have to be grounded in the real physical world that exists. Systematic theology and engineering practice are approximations of reality, not ultimate reality itself. However, they can become good enough approximations so that you can reliably use them to guide your life. This paper describes several ways that such approximations can be used by the Christian engineer

Competitive Dynamics between Physical and Virtual Markets in Multiplex Networks

Despite having interesting results of analyzing the adoption of e-commerce using social networks, diffusion does not occur in a single-layered network. There is sufficient evidence that game theory, complex networks and Theory of Planned Behavior are suitable frameworks to represent some part of the dynamics of innovation diffusion. However, it is necessary to integrate this methodological triplet to accept that an emergent behavior is generated by more real causes. We analyzed the effect of the multiplex topology when people decide to make transactions through virtual or physical channels, and found that connectivity is a key issue when managing the agent’s behavior. This also translates into greater coordination in the agents' decisions. When a multiplex is formed by at least one network with very efficient information flow, this network will govern the dynamics affecting channel selection and will also reduce transaction uncertainty. In addition, we found that investing in connectivity is worthwhile when trust is low in at least one channel; otherwise, it does not have enough impact to increase current transactions. This article makes a significant methodological contribution by showing a new way to analyze the impact of multiplex social networks, as well as a practical contribution by evidencing the effects of the structures on both intentions and actions

Simple Harmonic Motion

Have you ever felt you were the slave of a clock? Clocks are mechanisims that include a pendulum or balance wheel whose repeated patterns of movement define equal time intervals, one after another. Such repeated movements are called periodic motion. Periodic motion may occur when a particle or body is confined to a limited region of space by the forces acting on it and does not have sufficient energy to escape. In this module you will study the special kind of periodic motion that results when the net force acting on a particle, often called the restoring force, is directly proportional to the particle\u27s displacement from its equilibrium position; this is known as simple harmonic motion. Actually, simple harmonic motion is an idealization that applies only when friction, finite size, and other small effects in real physical systems are neglected. But it is a good enough approximation that it ranks in importance with other special kinds of motion (free fall, circular and rotational motion) that you have already studied. Examples of simple harmonic motion include cars without shock absorbers, a child\u27s swing, violin strings, and, more importantly, certain electrical circuits and vibrations of a tuning fork that you may study in later modules

Hidden freedom in the mode expansion on static spacetimes

We review the construction of ground states focusing on a real scalar field whose dynamics is ruled by the Klein-Gordon equation on a large class of static spacetimes. As in the analysis of the classical equations of motion, when enough isometries are present, via a mode expansion the construction of two-point correlation functions boils down to solving a second order, ordinary differential equation on an interval of the real line. Using the language of Sturm-Liouville theory, most compelling is the scenario when one endpoint of such interval is classified as a limit circle, as it often happens when one is working on globally hyperbolic spacetimes with a timelike boundary. In this case, beyond initial data, one needs to specify a boundary condition both to have a well-defined classical dynamics and to select a corresponding ground state. Here, we take into account boundary conditions of Robin type by using well-known results from Sturm-Liouville theory, but we go beyond the existing literature by exploring an unnoticed freedom that emerges from the intrinsic arbitrariness of secondary solutions at a limit circle endpoint. Accordingly, we show that infinitely many one-parameter families of sensible dynamics are admissible. In other words, we emphasize that physical constraints guaranteeing the construction of full-fledged ground states do not, in general, fix one such state unambiguously. In addition, we provide, in full detail, an example on $(1 + 1)$-half Minkowski spacetime to spell out the rationale in a specific scenario where analytic formulae can be obtained.Comment: 24 pages, 3 fig